Wednesday, 10 September 2008

Monday Morning Photo. 8/9/08. This one's from Mark Bau.

Peter has mentioned that he doesn't mind us young'uns adding to this mailout so whilst scanning tonight I came across this one. I normally wouldn't scan a pure NSW shot as my website is 100% VR but I thought this might interest a few. I was only 14 when Mum let me travel by myself (actually with a fellow railfan who is now a fellow spark driver, Colin McKee) to Albury on the Sunday excursion train. The year is 1977 and this was my first taste of railroading NSW style. We made our way to the loco depot office which was a very modest affair, after asking if we could walk around and take a few photos the simple reply was "long as ya don't get run over" I remember it was just before the Melbourne Cup, actually I think it was the first weekend of daylight saving, and I saw a Melbourne Cup sweep pinned to the wall of the loco office. I mentioned that I was suprised that the Melbourne Cup was of interest this far from Melbourne to which the bloke who gave us permission replied "Race the stops the bloody nation innit?" Funny the silly little details you remember.

It was hot day and I was genuinely fascinated with the locos I had only previously seen in books and magazines. The certainly looked different and in the case of the ALCO's sounded very different, I recall the smell of the railway was different too. A friendly shed crew invited us into a 48 class and took us for a spin. These NSW people seemed very friendly! We watched the ceremonial changing of the locos on the northbound Daylight and then got in position for this departure shot. Considering this was with a cheapie rangfinder camera it's not a bad shot, I have no idea if the nice positioning of the signal gantry was intentional or not, probably not.

31 years on probably the only thing that still survives is the station tower seen above the 421. I think I'd be standing on the Albury bypass freeway if I tried to take this shot today.

Bauie

Thanks for this one Mark, we can see that you were once a Teenage Railfan, I've heard it said that you still are. If anyone would like to follow Mark's lead, please feel free, your contribution will be acknowledged

About Me

It's been a long, long time since I was a teenage railfan and took the photos that I'm posting here. For too few years in my late teens and early twenties I travelled not nearly enough in the eastern States of Australia with a change of clothes, a blanket and a camera. I wish I'd been more places and kept it up for a few more years but I'm grateful for what I was able to do. Family and work became the priorities for the next 40 odd years.
Click on the photos for a large image and clicking on the slideshow will take you to my Picasa site and my other albums.
I've been sending the postings in this blog out as emails over a number of years to an ever expanding mailing list and this blog will be an archive when it's finished.
At the top of the page are links to Mark Bau's "Victorian Railways", Johnny's Pages and Weston Langford's photos.They are all well worth a look and they inspired me to gather my weekly postings together here. Unfortunately we have lost Mike Venn's "Sixties Steam in Australasia" site which was a fotopic site and that company has collapsed.
Thanks must go to the friendly railway people of Australia and to my mum and dad and our extended family.